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Fermoy town councillors met on Wednesday evening last to hear from Cork County Council’s Head of Finance how those controversial water charges they’ve been paying since 2005 came about. Photo: iStock

Fermoy town councillors met on Wednesday evening last to hear from Cork County Council's Head of Finance just how those controversial water charges they've been paying since 2005 came about.

Liz Barry, Head of Finance, attended the special meeting to clear up the confusion that surrounded the charges and the town body's obligation to pay them. She had a job on her hands and it proved to be a lengthy meeting.

The matter was first raised at the November meeting of the town council by Mayor Olive Corcoran. It was her contention that the charges were levied in error and they shouldn't have been paying them. She even went as far as to suggest the town council could reclaim some of the almost €1.5m they'd paid in charges in the years since.

Town clerk Pauline Moriarty chaired the special meeting. The Head of Finance explained that in January 2004, the law changed and sanitary functions were handed to local authorities. It was like the situation now with Irish Water, a huge investment was needed. Fermoy Town Council wouldn't have had the wherewithal to borrow to the extent that was needed. Instead Cork County Council assumed responsibility and became the sanitary authority. The county council wasn't ready though to take over the domestic water function and so, Fermoy Town Council acted as their agents, collecting and handing the money over to them. The Local Government Fund was supposed to fill the gap in funding for housing, roads etc., and Fermoy Town Council's contribution should have been reduced but wasn't. No local authority was to gain money and none were to lose as a result of the change in legislation but in Fermoy's case, there was a gain as it wasn't reduced. That was put right by levying the charge.

In 2005, the town council was asked to and they passed a Section 85 motion giving them the authority to collect the charge for that year. The motion was proposed by the late Cllr Aileen Pyne and seconded by Cllr John Murphy. Answering a question posed by Cllr Seamus Coleman, she explained that, after that the county council got their own system for administering the charge up and running, they took it over from the town council.

The Head of Finance was asked why it was done that way. She supposed it could have been done differently but they'd reviewed it and anything they came up with would have cost Fermoy more.

Cllr Michael Hanley took exception to the perception, he said was created, that they let large amounts of money slip away.

Cllr Noel McCarthy asked for further clarification on whether or not they paid over and above what they should have. The Head of Finance was adamant that they did not.

Cllr Tadhg O'Donovan said they should be apologising to the Head of Finance; that there should have been no need for her to come and meet with them. At the same time he conceded that clarity was needed.

Cllr Corcoran said she'd been told by the previous town manager that a mistake was made in levying the charge. "I'm not looking for heads - I'm just looking for clarity," she stressed. She'd sought independent legal advice and found the law was very clear in the matter and that the town council shouldn't have paid.

"I think the truth should come out," she said, adding that no aspersions should be cast on any previous or sitting members. "I am a public rep, I have to tell it as I see it. I'm happy with this explanation but I'm not happy that it is the law of the land that it should be so," she said.

The Head of Finance agreed it was true that the year after the change in legislation came about some towns did renege on paying the charge but she insisted they have since paid all monies owed. She was part of the negotiations. "All are cleared now. All towns have paid their water 'gap' charge," she assured members.

She did ask the auditor why he'd queried the charge in 2011. She thought it was because auditors tend to focus on different areas of accounts each year.  There was no particular reason why he queried the charge that year. He asked about it in relation to other towns too, it wasn't just Fermoy. The town clerk pointed out that it was also a new auditor being used by them for the first time, which might have had a bearing on the matter.

The mayor told the meeting that a Government committee which deals with such matters said they weren't the only town council to have an issue with it.

Cllr Seamus Coleman felt the mayor had a right to raise the query. He thought the responsibility lay with the auditor who created the query by highlighting the issue. Instead of drawing attention to it in his report he could have clarified the charge with a phone call. Cllr. O'Donovan agreed.

Acting town manager Niall Healy, said he'd met with the auditor the week before and he accepted that his form of words could have been more clear and had given rise to the charge being brought into question. He was raising it to query if the town council was happy that they were getting value for money in paying it. "He accepts he could have made a better choice of words," the manager said.

The Head of Finance said Cllr Corcoran was right to raise the matter. Cllr Hanley however was angry, saying it had led to impressions being given in the media that they had let the money slip away.

"We were scapegoats but we didn't make a mistake," said an aggrieved Cllr John Murphy, who'd seconded the Section 85 motion back in 2005.

Cllr Noel McCarthy said the media could only report what had come at their meetings about it. He was glad they'd gotten clarity.

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